


Boundless

by whiteraven1606



Series: Three [10]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anxiety, Dehumanization, Developing Friendships, Developing Relationship, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Force Ghosts, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Multi, Past Child Abuse, Past Torture, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protectiveness, Recovery, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-22
Updated: 2016-02-22
Packaged: 2018-05-22 13:51:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6081750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whiteraven1606/pseuds/whiteraven1606
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Poe wasn't taking the blame for this one. He would say it was Rey's fault, but if you really wanted to get technical, it was more Kylo Ren's fault, really. Not that you'd get Poe to admit to any of that around either the Princess General or the Jedi Prince. He might be a flyboy, but he wasn't stupid.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Boundless

****

Rey slipped from their bed and felt at the loose braid in her hair. She checked it in the mirror and smiled at how odd she looked. It only took moments to have it out and done up properly. She put on the new shirt that Poe had found her before she'd gotten sucked in by the plant vendor. She pet the cloth on her own elbows as she stepped out into their outer room.

The newer ex-Stormtrooper was silently watching her. She waved at him and stepped around children to get to the fresher. She drank from the tap and grinned to herself as she used a few drops to scrub at the marks Poe's fingers had left on her face from where she'd been laying on him. Water to wash. It was so _different_ than Jakku.

She cleaned up and made sure she had her hair right before going back out. Half the kids were awake now too. She crouched and patted one on the head as she went through them to get to the door. She passed BB-8 coming in and closed the door behind herself.

She ignored the two children that followed her to the gardens. Kaleine had explained why they felt the need to follow Poe's family, so Rey did her best not to be bothered by it. She settled near the wall that had felt different the day before.

She folded her legs and wiggled around until she was _just_ right. She wondered if Han would have liked the gardens like Leia did. She shook her head and closed her eyes. She settled in to meditate.

****

Poe was dreaming again. He watched Satine romp around the kid's hiding lumps from the hangar-side of his forcefield. She was surrounded by a mass of faintly glowing lines. He blinked and crouched down next to Kaleine where she was leaning against the side of his ship just outside the forcefield. "Why the lines?"

Kaleine shrugged. "She's odd."

Finn appeared at his shoulder. "Uh. She looks...odd."

Poe frowned as he glanced at them both. He considered Satine as Rey appeared on her Jakku dune right next to Kaleine with the braid Poe had put in her hair. "You okay with the braid?"

Rey felt along the braid. "It's different. I like it." She frowned at Satine. "Why is she tangled in lines?"

"No idea." Poe looked at Finn inside the hangar with him to Rey standing outside. "Rey."

She didn't turn her head as she kept watching Satine flit from one hidden child to the next. "Hum?"

Poe stepped closer to the forcefield. "Why are you outside? You're always outside."

Rey glanced at him as Satine's romping brought her closer. "I don't want to hurt you."

"Right." Poe considered it and _reached_ through the forcefield. It was hard to push through, like he was shoving his hand through half-hardened duracrete instead of an energy field.

"Poe." Rey turned towards him.

Satine stopped and watched them. Her lines started to unfold and splay out from around her.

He caught the trailing part of Rey's crossover wrapping. He pulled. "Please."

Finn crowded close and cradled Poe from behind as Rey came along with Poe's tugging. 

Satine's lines were snaking around herself as she swirled around watching them.

BB-8 beeped happily from somewhere nearby as Rey came through the forcefield. There was Jakku sand everywhere as Poe pulled her to them.

"Hi." He was tired, but it was _good_ to have her with them.

She grinned at him. "Hi." Rey frowned. "Poe?"

He felt really good, so tired, but so complete. It was so much better than... _him_. Than before he'd been half-rescued by Finn and met Rey. "What?"

She pointed over his and Finn's shoulders towards the far end of the hangar. "When did that happen?"

Poe tried to turn as BB-8's beeping became frantic. Rey and Finn disappeared. Poe fought against his sudden bonds as he was back _there_ again. He struggled as Kylo Ren reached a hand out towards Poe. He was going to get them all killed and there was no way to stop it...Satine appeared between Poe and Kylo Ren.

"You are safe, Tree Keeper." Her trailing lines wrapped Kylo Ren in light and he disappeared with a cut off scream as Satine smiled wider and wider...

Poe flailed and smacked Finn on the hip as he woke up. "What?"

Finn grumbled and pushed himself up. "What, what?"

BB-8 was beeping hurriedly from the foot of the bed.

Poe yawned. "What do you mean she rerouted the whole communications array? You can't reroute the whole thing, can you?" He started working his way to the edge of the bed. "Yes, yes, I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm coming."

****

Luke woke with a gasp. He sat up and clutched his hands to his chest as he tried to force his lungs to work. He blinked several times as Leia appeared in the bedroom doorway.

"You felt it to?"

He nodded. "Yes." He threw back his blanket and pulled on the robe she was holding out for him. "We're too old for this."

She snorted. "Was it Satine?"

Luke squinted as they passed R2-D2 and C-3PO chattering to each other about improved communications and upgraded encryptions. "Want to bet?"

Leia rolled her eyes and smacked at him as they turned a corner. "No."

Behind them C-3PO turned and started after them. "Princess, where are your shoes? I don't believe you should be walking barefooted with the floors in their current condition."

Leia sighed as they gained six children and four adults for an escort. "As though I'm going to catch my death from going barefoot in the corridors. Have you seen how clean it is?" She reached out and swept her hand over one of the children's heads. "Your platoon does well, Noilo."

The kid gave them a quick grin.

As they turned the corner they were met by Poe, Finn, and two more of the children. They fell in together as they headed down the hallway leading to the room they'd given to Satine.

Luke bumped shoulders with Poe. "You don't rate as many escorts?"

He rubbed at the corners of his eyes. "I'm not sure if they think I'm more competent or if I'm not as valuable."

One of the children made a rude noise. "We count Finn as equal to four of us."

Poe nodded. "Ah." He gave Luke a long suffering expression as they slowed down as they neared Satine's room. Poe knelt down next to one of the children in the corridor. "What's happened?"

The child shrugged. "She didn't make much noise. This morning the Signal Officer of the Day came hurrying down the corridor, but we didn't let her pass because you'd said no one except you, Finn, the Doctor lady, the Princess General, or the Jedi Prince. Then you came."

"Alright. Good job." He stood and eased around the corner into Satine's room. He leaned back out. "Uh, help?"

Luke shifted forward to Poe's shoulder and stared at the...mess. Leia pushed between him and Poe, so Luke shifted back enough for her to get in front of him.

"Oh, my."

Finn just sighed. "We've talked about this in the past, Boost. You can't just string wire. It worries the officers."

Satine was in the middle of a mass of patched wires. "Good."

Poe leaned towards Finn. "She does this sort of thing?"

"She once did something like this in the _Finalizer_. Kylo Ren tried to force her to teach someone right after she'd finished it."

"What happened?"

Finn turned his head towards Luke. "It fried, but nothing it was hooked into shorted. No one was sure why. No one saw Kylo Ren for a week afterwards."

Luke frowned and looked at Satine staring at them. "Everybody back up." He waited for them to back away. Leia went last, her hand lingering on his shoulder for several moments. Luke unhooked his lightsaber and watched Satine tense up. "Finn, send this down the corridor to R2 and get all the droids at least two corridors away."

"Yes, Master Luke."

Luke waited until someone yelled down the hallway that they were clear. He pulled up a bare tendril of Force and nudged it towards Satine.

She grinned as a wire shorted. "Good?"

Luke blew out a breath and settled himself into the Force. "Pretty good. Test?"

She cocked her head and frowned.

Finn appeared at his shoulder and signed at her.

Satine straightened. "Easy, careful, test, test." She signed as she spoke, but the only Imperial sign Luke recognised was 'stupid.'

He nodded. "Easy." He nudged Finn with his elbow. "Back up, padawan. I don't want this hitting you if it does what I think it's going to do."

Finn backed away, frowning as he went.

Luke let the Force flow through him.

****

Leia winced as Luke dropped like a stalled X-Wing as wires spat and sparked. She slumped against the wall as it echoed back through her. "Ugh."

Poe was right there. "General?"

She flapped her hand. "He's breathing. Get him out of there. The gardens. Something living around him. Now."

Finn started forward, but Poe caught him.

"Stay with her. I'll get Luke."

Finn nodded and watched with a tight expression as Poe hefted Luke up and brought him out of Satine's room.

Leia waited until Poe was out of the corridor before easing forward with Finn's support. Satine was sitting on the Code Six frowning at them.

"Stupid?"

Leia huffed. "Yes, he's stupid sometimes. Will he be alright?"

She blinked and blinked before frowning and looking at Finn.

Leia shoved lightly on Finn to get him to quit clutching at her so tightly. "Repeat what I said."

"Yes, ma'am." Finn frowned as he signed.

Satine made several signs as she spoke. "Good still."

Finn nodded. "She thinks he'll be fine. It hasn't killed anyone she's used it on." Finn signed again.

Satine grinned and signed back. "Boost."

Leia sighed. "Someone find me Admiral Statura." She leaned against the wall. "And a chair."

Satine scrambled off her Code Six and came around from behind it with a chair. "Princess General."

Leia accepted the chair and settled into it. "Where _did_ you hear that from, dear?"

Finn signed from beside her as Satine crouched between them and the Code Six.

Satine grinned. "Other Man."

Leia frowned, but lost her line of thought as Luke slammed into her consciousness.

****

Rey was meditating when the fear slid past. It was just like when she'd watched Han step out on that walkway. She'd wanted to scream at him not to do it. Wait, wait, wait. She frowned as _nothing_ followed. He shouldn't be nothing. Han had been...

Rey concentrated. She knew now from the stories that Jessika told that if she'd just had enough training, she could have stopped it. She could have _caught_ him...

She felt the echo of fear from the General. Rey frowned harder. She could have caught him for the General. For the second person to feel like _family_ in so long. Rey _reached_ , stretching herself. Just a bit further...

Catch him...

Save him...

"What the kriffing _hell_?"

Rey snapped her eyes open and gasped. "Oh! Oh, no."

He was glowing faintly, but solid looking enough. Better than the little boy she was catching out of the corner of her eye on occasion since coming back from Ahch-To. Certainly better than the man that made the General so mad.

He frowned at her. "What did you _do_ , kid?"

She shrugged as the door to the corridor snapped open. Rey turned and stood up as Poe carried Luke towards them.

Han came closer. "What happened to him? Is he alright? When did you get him to come back?"

Poe blinked at Han as he eased Luke down to the floor. "Rey?"

"Uhm. I think I might have messed up."

Poe raised his eyebrows as he turned Luke over onto his back. "Maybe."

Han waggled a finger at him. "Don't 'maybe' her. What happened to Luke?"

Poe checked Luke's pulse. "We rescued a Force-sink crazy person from the First Order and he just tested her defenses with the Force. I'm going to say she won this round."

Han knelt down next to them and checked Luke's pulse as soon as Poe moved his hand. "What the hell? A Force-sink? How's that possible?"

Luke groaned.

Han gently slapped him and Rey frowned as it connected. "Luke, buddy, you need to wake up, huh? Now is not the time for sleepy Jedi."

"Han." Luke grabbed at Han's vest as he sat up. "Han?!"

"Hey, kid."

Luke groaned and lay back down. "Okay. Father was right about her."

" _Your_ father?" Han sat down next to Luke. "I die and the whole galaxy goes to rancor shit."

Luke chuckled weakly. "Leia's so mad at me right now, but she's going to have kittens when she sees you."

Poe frowned down at Luke. "You dropped like a sack of credits. It hit her too, but nothing anywhere as bad."

"Han!?"

****

Leia was only upright because Finn had her weight. She stared at him. Younger, but not as young as he'd been when they'd first met. Almost solid, but faintly glowing around the edges in that blasted jacket he loved so much. "How?"

Han spread his hands from where he sat next to where Luke was laid out on the floor. "Never tell me the odds?"

She took a breath, and then forced herself to take another. Leia started forward and Finn kept with her until he was helping her ease down to the floor across Luke from Han. " _Han_."

He gave her a wide grin, just as marvelous to see as she remembered. "I'm sorry, Princess."

She shook her head as a smile tugged at her lips. "No. I sent you when I shouldn't have."

With a shrug, he reached for her. "No, you didn't. I went because we both knew I needed to do it. Our boy is alive, Leia."

She felt tingling along where they touched. Below them, Luke was watching quietly. Leia tugged Han's hands down until they were touching Luke's chest. "Still."

Han grinned and looked down at Luke. "You've got a powerful padawa-whatisit, kid."

"Yeah." Luke looped an arm up around Han's back as he covered their joined hands with his left hand. "I know."

****

Captain Phasma reread the report for a third time. Not because she thought it would somehow change the contents, but simply because she didn't believe it the first two times. She strode from the bridge of the _Finalizer_ and went to the third nearest storage room. After being certain the door was fully closed and carefully checking that the single camera was still covered from the last time she'd caught a pair of Troopers conspiring, Phasma clicked through her helmet's comm channels to find the Timing channel.

She allowed herself to lean just slightly against the wall as Boost's cadance took her through the FI serials. Phasma allowed herself a single ragged breath. The lost of life on Corellia was not more than a decent small battle brought, but losing Boost was...problematic. As the Roll continued, Phasma thought through what in meant to have no one left for the Code Sixes.

She clenched her hands as Boost's voice slid down that panicked line at the start of the FK serials. She'd recorded that moments before General Hux had ordered her beaten for non-compliance. Phasma remembered watching her scramble to shut off the recording as they forcefully pulled her away from her boards. 

Phasma clicked back over to the main channel and with a practiced flick of her fingers she cleared the log on her helmet.

After checking she had time before she was due to perform her next inspection, Phasma located the nearest Trap Trooper and went to pull him from his current guard duty.

"Captain?"

"Follow me."

He fell in with her and kept a good pace with her, even when she lengthened her stride. His footsteps only faltered when she turned the last corner before Boost's workspace.

"Captain?"

Phasma pointed at the door. "Open it."

He had the disipline to not cock his head as he obviously debated if he should admit to Boost having taught him how to open her door. "Captain..."

"I am _not_ in the mood. Open. The. Door."

He froze for a moment before setting his blaster against the wall of the hallway. "Yes, Captain." He eased around her to get at the trap on the door.

She waited through him disarming the trap before picking up his blaster and inspecting it. Finding it adequately clean, Phasma held it back out to the Trooper. "Report back to your post."

He saluted, took his blaster, and hurried away.

Phasma slipped into Boost's workspace and trailed her hand along the edge of the nearest patch board. She knew that General Hux would blame any thing other than his own incompetence for getting Boost killed...Phasma blinked.

She moved forward and bent down to stare at the blinking light on Boost's console. Her intruder alarm. Phasma turned towards the door. She hadn't tripped any lines and she knew Boost only had the one line for this workspace. She moved to Boost's console and queried for the room's recordings.

It took some back scrolling, but there was one of the TIE crew that had been lost with Boost on Corellia. Phasma recognized him as a Trap Trooper from the latest list. She watched the footage show him pulling a Trooper box from the floor.

Phasma narrowed her eyes as she turned to look at the grate covering the middle of the floor. She turned back and watched the Trooper struggle with the weight of the box as he hauled it out of the room. 

When had he managed that? Upon crashing his TIE he'd been assessed by Medical, processed for Reconditioning, which had been postponed due to Medical's assessment that the Trooper had been displaying signs of severe concussion, and assigned to fly transport prior to going to his final duty.

Phasma rewatched the part of the recording where the Trooper took the box out of the floor. Not big enough for a Trooper to hide in, as well as no one being unaccounted for, and they had no under-height Troopers on the ship. There was nothing that could be fit in a Trooper box that was worth the risk...She reached out to touch Boost's patch panels.

Patches written out would be...No, that would be too impractical. Data chips wouldn't add up to enough weight. Clothing or armor was pointless besides not weighing enough to matter. Phasma sat on the end of Boost's bunk as she ran through all the possible scenarios.

As shift change neared, Phasma decided she needed to see the reports from Corellia again. She'd need a full inspection of the _Finalizer_ as well. That box had to be somewhere.

****

Luke waited until Finn and Poe had helped Leia up from the floor and headed towards her quarters with Han trailing along before turning his attention to Rey. "Tired?"

She shook her head and helped him up when he held out his hand to her. "No? I feel...thin? I think."

He sighed as he leaned back against the wall it looked like she'd been sitting against before all the excitement. "What happened?"

"I...I was meditating. Leia said you'd told her it'd help with control, but that it didn't help her. She thought I should see if it helped me."

Luke nodded as he tried to smooth his defenses back into something resembling normal. "You felt what I did that knocked me out cold?"

Rey frowned. "You felt scared and then there was nothing. Just _nothing_. I was thinking about Han when it happened." She folded her arms around her knees. "Did I...Do you think she's mad at me?"

Luke rubbed at the corner of his eye with his thumb as he considered the tangle of emotions Leia had been feeling when she'd realized Han was the Force ghost in the room this time. "No, she's not mad." He gently tucked his left hand under her hair to cup the back of her neck. "If I had thought it possible I'd would have been tempted to get him for her myself."

Rey frowned down at her knees. "I think...I think I should go back to Jakku."

Luke gently rubbed tiny circles on her skin with his fingers. "Why is that?"

"I...I'm too powerful." She scrubbed at the tears forming in the corners of her eyes with one hand before pulling away from Luke to stand and pace. "I made a Stormtrooper release me and give me his weapon. I saw into Kylo Ren's mind when he was trying to find information about the map to you in my mind. I..." She stopped to turn and frown down at Luke. "I don't want to _hurt_ anyone. Maybe my family left me on Jakku because I'm too dangerous."

Luke forced himself to sit still until she flopped back down onto the floor in front of him. He reached out and gently touched her cheek. "I promise you that your family leaving you on Jakku was an attempt to protect you." Luke patted her cheek as she glanced at him. "Power isn't your problem, padawan. Fear is. My fear, yours, even Leia's fear isn't helping you."

She frowned up at him. "I can't be calm like you."

Luke snorted. "I'm not calm. I might _look_ calm, but right now I'm about half a breath from laughing hysterically."

She double blinked before pushing herself up to sit across from him. "Really?"

Luke nodded as he considered his slightly trembling hands. "Really." He pushed up to his feet and held out his hand to her. "You and Finn start training with me tomorrow. Once I've settled both of you we'll see about training the children."

She hauled herself up with little help from him. "Forming a new Jedi Order?"

Luke hummed as he leaned on her as his balance reminded him he'd been knocked on his ass not that long ago. "No. I think I'm done trying to recreate what was lost. We're going to start over."

Rey let him lean and she smiled at the four children guarding the door as they passed into the corridor. "Oh, good. I won't have to tell you to go jump in a rancor pit just because I'm not giving up Finn or Poe."

"Both of them?"

Rey took more of his weight as the children formed up around them. "Both." She poked him in the ribs. "Some of the stories make it sound like you and Leia shared Han."

"It was...complicated." Luke sighed as they turned a corner to find R2 chattering at him about his lightsaber. "I'm fine, R2. Settle down." He reached out to pat R2 on the top of his dome.

Rey helped him clip his lightsaber onto his belt as his hands' trembling kept him from manging on his own. "Can I ask you questions without you spitting juice at me?"

Luke shifted to lean part of his weight onto R2 as they neared his quarters, down one door from Leia's quarters. "I reserve the right not to answer something."

"That's fair." She kept close as Luke keyed his door open. "I'm still not certain how Snap got juice to come out of his nose. I didn't think it was that weird of a question."

Luke collapsed onto his low couch and listened to R2 and Rey puttering around his space as the exhaustion he'd been fighting started to win. "Ask me....later."

****

TA-175 sat next to Black One and checked all outgoing signals as the Resistance base attempted to adjust to their gained signal strength.

The Designated Officer came and leaned against the side of the X-Wing designated Black One for some time. TA-175 double checked that all vitals of all the Designated Officer's soldiers were within acceptable limits. The Designated Officer's BB-8 unit rolled close, beeping insistently.

"No, I'm fine, Buddy. I just had an...exciting morning." He looked around and seemed to notice TA-175. He sat down across from TA-175 on a tool storage crate. "How are you?"

TA-175 was not accustomed to such questions. It took a moment to formulate a response. "This unit is functional."

With a slow nod, the Designated Officer patted the BB-8 unit that rolled close to them. "That's...good. Why were you on the planet I met you on?"

"This unit was ordered there."

"By whose order?"

"Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, deceased."

The Designated Officer's eyes narrowed. "Soooo. Deceased before or after the order was given?"

"This unit does not understand the query."

"Of course not." The Designated Officer patted the BB-8 unit again. "Do you know when Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn became deceased?"

"Affirmative."

"When was that?"

"During the Battle of Naboo."

The Designated Officer stood. "Have we wiped you down with oil since we got back?"

"Negative."

"Alright, TA-175, let's work on that."

****

Poe lost himself in cleaning TA-175 and BB-8. He wasn't going to think about what it meant that a dead Jedi was fussing with Poe's life. Seriously, what did he need with a droid that could commit murder, anyway?

He polished BB-8 as TA-175 dried. "How are you, Buddy?"

BB-8 trilled and beeped at him about how many of the platoon would ask BB-8 questions through another droid or console that could translate Binary.

Poe smiled as he switched to a different soft cloth to work on TA-175. "That's great, Buddy. Why don't you go find Finn or Rey and show them your polish job, hm?"

He watched BB-8 hurry off before turning back to TA-175. "You follow my orders, do you?"

"This unit recognizes Commander Poe as Designated Officer."

"Commander Poe? Not Commander Dameron?"

TA-175's optics dimmed like it was blinking. "Commander Poe."

"Huh." Poe finished polishing. Even two days prior he'd have told himself that it didn't mean anything. Now, now he was inclined to worry about it. He turned as BB-8 came into the hangar with Finn in tow. He waved them over. "Hey."

Finn sat down across from Poe as BB-8 rolled to sit between them. "Hi, Poe."

"You okay?"

With a shrug, Finn reached out to touch the top of BB-8's dome. "Rey said she talked to you about me."

Poe nodded. "She mentioned she's concerned. I'm pretty sure she's worried she hurt you by poking at your past."

Finn grimiced. "No." He frowned and flexed his hands. "Yes? I don't know. It isn't important, but she seems to think it is. We're busy with everything else and I don't really think..." He trailed off with another shrug.

Poe pulled his legs in so he was sitting cross-legged. "It's your choice if we just leave it until later."

"I...I don't..." Finn huffed. "No. I want to fit in here." He glanced at Poe before looking down at his hands. "Is Rey right that I'm defective?"

Poe cocked his head. "Did she say defective?"

Finn frowned and shook his head. "No. She didn't say anything like that out loud. I...don't have a better word." He shrugged.

With a sigh, Poe put his elbows on his knees and let his hands dangle down to touch BB-8. "You've read the medical section of the holonet too, I take it?"

"Yes." Finn traced a finger across the seam where BB-8's paint went from white to orange. "You know for the most part the fastest way to get a human to comply is pain? You'll do anything to stop the pain given enough time."

Poe bit the inside of his cheek and nodded encouragingly when Finn looked up. "Everyone breaks, yes, I know that."

With a nod, Finn looked back down at BB-8. "Rewards of pleasure for proper compliance is a part of Reconditioning." He frowned. "It hurts until you do or say what they want and then the pain changes into pleasure. It was something we could report for voluntarily to get more rewards, but I never did."

"You know we don't do that sort of thing."

Finn nodded and looked at Poe with that painfully earnest expression of his. "I know. It's just that I don't know much about body pleasure outside of that. They couldn't curtail us every moment, so I know what beings can do together, but..." He huffed. "Touching others was harshly punished. I hadn't touched someone skin to skin for a very long time before we stole the TIE fighter."

Poe reached across BB-8 and stroked his finger down the back of Finn's hand. "You touched Rey when you met her. Held hands, I heard."

Finn snorted. "With a lot of protesting on her part and then there was the running." He smiled at the memory. Finn turned his hand so Poe was stroking his palm. "She's worried enough to talk to you, so does that mean it is something to worry about?"

"Probably not." Poe kept up his finger stroking. "The three of us haven't really talked about...us."

He caught Poe's hand between both of his. "I want it. Rey and you. Whatever we do I want it to be together."

Poe brought his other hand to rest on top of Finn's hand. "That's great, Buddy." He tugged on Finn until he leaned forward so Poe could get an arm around him. "You aren't defective, Finn. I promise."

Finn smiled wide and pressed his forehead to Poe's with a quiet whimper coming from deep in his chest. "Don't let me hurt either of you."

Poe brought his hand up to cup the back of Finn's head. "Shhh. We'll be alright. Rey didn't have friends before leaving Jakku, so she's fumbling her way along. We're going to learn together with her, okay?"

Finn nodded against Poe and then pulled back as Poe's comm started beeping.

Poe frowned at his comm as he looked at the incoming ID, someone must have routed the call direct to him without asking first. It'd been one of those kind of days. He accepted the call. "Dad?"

****

Satine checked the connections again and hummed to herself as one of the littles put another water pouch on the bunk nearby. Defense for the new home was solid now that she'd replaced the spent wires from the Jedi Prince's stupid test.

Satine settled down on top of the Code Six and flitted through the recording for the Repeating Roll.

She frowned at the panic in her voice for the start of the FK series. She'd been...bad that day. Satine glanced around her new workspace. There was no reason to hide anything in a Trooper box here. She didn't need panic here. No pain. 

She didn't need to wait for the Roll Trooper to ask for changes. No one had hurt her for making the signal strength proper and good without asking the Princess General first.

She smiled at one of the littles watching from the hallway as she rerecorded a few lines and inserted them into the Roll. She found the length for the JYs and took out the ones she'd heard were here. She blinked and considered.

Finnscean, Finnscean, rebels that were Resistance. Satine grinned and carefully recorded the proper names. She put them into their old spots in the Roll. Yes, good.

She would throw the last switch and wait for the name. Satine grinned as she scooted off the Code Six to sit on the cot. The little from the hallway was frowning at her.

"Good?"

The little creeped closer. "Poe said you were encrypted and can't talk plain."

"Name?"

"I'm Kaleine."

Satine grinned. "Little Free Stormtrooper."

Kaleine frowned and tilted her head. "You don't seem encrypted to me. Why were you saying people's names? We can't let the First Order know you survived."

She blinked and ran her fingers over the water pouch from the end of the cot.

"I like it here. I don't want to lose it because you did something without permission."

"No food." Satine wrapped herself up in the blanket they'd left her.

Kaleine sighed. "Maybe you are encrypted." She considered Satine's workspace. "The wires pulse the Force and it overloads the Jedi when they touch their connection to the Force, huh? I felt it when the Jedi Prince flooded his."

"Panic?"

"I panicked." She frowned at Satine. "I hid the whole base. Why didn't I drop too?" She blinked as Satine grinned at her. "You know why, don't you?"

Satine petted Kaleine's hair. "Save, wait, keep save, win."

Kaleine pulled a protein bar from her pocket. "Here."

Satine grinned and accepted the offering. "Boost."

"Sure." Kaleine caught Satine's hand. "You're safe here. The Princess General won't hurt you. There's only a few not happy people, but the mad pilot threatened them into decent behaviour."

"Jessika Pava."

Kaleine's little eyes narrowed as she stared at Satine. "Mad pilot."

"Jessika Pava."

"Commander Poe."

Satine clapped her hands. "The Keeper of the Tree." She hunched down as another person appeared in the doorway to the corridor.

"Little?"

Kaleine turned her head. "I think Satine has remembered information loops."

The adult eased closer. "What do you mean?"

Satine watched them both as Kaleine leaned against the adult's leg.

"Watch." Kaleine turned her head towards Satine. "Mad pilot."

"Jessika Pava."

Kaleine poked the adult. "Say your name."

"The new one? Korro."

Satine smiled. "Korro Zeroes Finnscean, Patch Trooper."

Zeroes frowned. "Who told you my new name?"

Kaleine tugged on Zeroes' pant leg. "What's a Patch Trooper?"

Zeroes frowned down at Kaleine. "Boost has been teaching bits of what she can do to others. I know some of the patch panel patches. They are ways of getting signal where you want it to go."

"Oh." Kaleine frowned. "Is there such a thing as an Encryption Trooper?"

Satine grinned as she flopped down on her cot. They'd brought her a new one after she'd used up the metal from the other one. The little was a smart save. She pulled her cot closer to the Code Six by gripping the edge of the Six and pulling hard. "Boost."

"Boost?" Zeroes frowned as Kaleine poked him in the side. "Satine?"

Satine pulled her nice new fluffy blanket over her head. "Wait, wait, wait."

****


End file.
